Translated material
FRONT LINE
Circumstances
Viktor Volostnykh, doctor on duty at the narcological department of the city hospital No. 3 in Murom: - At the last moment, as far as I know, 57 people were poisoned by alcohol. Patients are first admitted to the infectious diseases department because...
Viktor Volostnykh, doctor on duty at the narcological department of the city hospital No. 3 in Murom:
- At the last moment, as far as I know, 57 people were poisoned by alcohol. First, patients are admitted to the infectious diseases department, because there is a suspicion of viral hepatitis. Within 2 - 3 days, viral hepatitis is removed, and patients are sent to the narcological, gastric and other departments. Only three of them are in the narcological clinic now. Due to the large number of poisoned, they are distributed among the somatic departments.
All patients were found to have toxic hepatitis on the background of abuse and poisoning with surrogate alcohol. We cannot say the exact reason, because we conduct a biochemical blood test, which only indicates the presence of toxic hepatitis. As for the contingent, they are mostly unemployed drinkers. But there are also random people for our department. Almost all patients say that they bought and consumed cheap vodka, which later led to a hospital bed. I don't really want to talk about the consequences of such use. Toxic hepatitis turns into biliary cirrhosis of the liver, from which the patient dies. The lethality of the outcome depends on the characteristics of the organism and the degree of damage to the liver tissue.
Doctor on duty at the toxicological center of Irkutsk:
“Over the past 24 hours, eight people have been admitted to us with a diagnosis of toxic hepatitis. As you understand, the likelihood that this will develop into cirrhosis in the future is very high. Almost all victims say that they drank hand-bought alcohol. Now a state of emergency has been declared in the region, an operational headquarters has been created. Investigators are working with the victims, trying to identify points of sale.
Doctor on duty at the city hospital in Kungur:
“Toxic hepatitis mostly comes from people of low social class. The cause of poisoning is imported alcohol. Most likely, cheap industrial alcohol with unknown additives.
- Is it true that toxic hepatitis is incurable, and people who get sick with it die within a year or even six months?
- Yes this is true. After all, toxic hepatitis implies necrosis of liver cells, which is almost impossible to cure. As a result of this disease, the liver simply dies.
Denis DAVYDOV, Anna OVYAN
random call
Ulan-Ude, German Kornilovich, pensioner:
“And everyone knows where the trouble comes from. Nearby, in the Irkutsk region, there is the Irkutsk hydrolysis plant, where industrial alcohol is transported and packaged under the guise of glass cleaners. The tramp buys and poisons.
Irkutsk, Vladimir Alexandrovich, railway engineer:
— We are advised to be careful in the choice of vodka. And vodka has nothing to do with it. Poisoned with diluted alcohol. They buy in garages near the border of the private sector. Harmfulness is determined by taste: sweetness means poison.
Pskov, policeman:
“The poisoning started recently, just a month ago. According to our data, 16 people died in Pskov in a month, more than 170 people are in the hospital. Poisoned not with vodka, but with diluted alcohol. The Ministry of Internal Affairs issued an internal order to combat the trade in surrogate alcohol. I won't say anything more. Names do not need to be mentioned.
Moore, Lydia
- Alcohol is poured and bred in apartments, handicraft. And the poisoning in all regions began at the same time. What does it mean? Either this is a separate brand of vodka, or the government is solving its own problems.
Stary Oskol, Belgorod region, Lyudmila Ilyinichna:
- Trade in underground vodka did not start a month ago, as they are now trying to imagine. You can always buy surrogates in the area of the Rope Factory: both alcohol diluted for bottling and vodka in bottles of 20 rubles each. They are poisoned. The police fight by taking bribes.
Marina, nurse:
- Our situation is critical: all Oskol hospitals are full, doctors are working tirelessly. People are yellow, scary... Now there are more than 800 patients with toxic hepatitis in Oskol, about 30 have died. The rest will also die within a year - we cannot treat such liver lesions.
Elena KOSTYUCHENKO
Geography of poisoning: from north to south and from west to east
(table)
Characters
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MASS POISONING?
We asked this question to those who developed, lobbied and carried out alcohol reform
The chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, has gone into stubborn silence and does not comment on anything. The last thing people heard from him last Friday:
“Take, for example, liquid for kindling fires. It is of high quality, but no one, especially in socially disadvantaged groups, thinks about quality and kindles fires with it. They drink her.
One of the initiators of the EGAIS project in the State Duma is a former deputy Valery Draganov.
“I left the deputy post ahead of schedule,” he told Novaya Gazeta. - I am no longer involved in the project and I am not interested in commenting on the situation on the alcohol market.
Employees of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise STC "Atlas" are those who implement the EGAIS system in Russia. We called the heads of departments from the regions where the most massive outbreaks of toxic hepatitis were recorded.
Viktor Syestov (Pskov region):
- Those who buy them are to blame for the distribution of surrogates that caused poisoning. The EGAIS system does not imply control over chemical surrogates, only over alcohol-containing products intended for consumption.
Vladimir Shutrov (Oryol region):
- Mass poisonings are associated with a very large release of counterfeit products. It is beyond the control of executive authorities and the Federal Tax Service of Russia. They do not have the ability to control the entire process of distributing alcohol from start to finish.
Evgeny Lyashenko (Belgorod region):
- The appearance of surrogates is sabotage. Those who previously lobbied for the federal law on EGAIS have now realized that the system is inconvenient, and are trying to prevent its implementation just when the system began to work. In general, to us, in the Belgorod region, the flow of alcohol came from Voronezh, where its accounting is poorly set.
Elena RACHEVA